Ozone is increasingly being used for treating both inanimate objects, such as water supplies, food products, and the like, e.g., for sterilization purposes, as well as animate objects, such as body parts of animals or of human beings for the promotion of healing. The beneficial effects of treatment with ozone in promoting healing are now well recognized. Examples of know ozone-treating methods and apparatus and applications therefor, are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,052,382 and 5,098,415.
Ozone, however, is a dangerous material and can raise a serious health hazard if not handled properly. Thus, a quantity of as little as 0.01 ppm (parts per million) of ozone in the atmosphere can be sensed by human beings, and a concentration of greater than 0.1 ppm is regarded as being extremely dangerous. When it is appreciated that ozone treatment processes frequently involve concentrations of as high 50,000 ppm, it will be seen that the smallest leak of ozone to the atmosphere can create a very real health danger to anyone in the immediate vicinity.